


From Knife to Rose

by basedongalra



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Characters Play Dungeons & Dragons, M/M, Pike (Lance's D&D Character), Thunderstorm Darkness (Keith's D&D Character), Valentine's Day Fluff, dungeon master coran
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29588553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basedongalra/pseuds/basedongalra
Summary: Klance Valentines Day Exchange 2021(update later)
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	From Knife to Rose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rinthegreat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/gifts).



> valentines day gift for Rin  
> it was a blast testing myself with D&D, hope you like it! c:

Sound of metal thunking against wood could be heard along with frustrated grunts. The constant noise of a useless battle started to drive Pike a little insane as he sighed and tossed his hands down, which were holding a tattered map.

“You’re aware you don’t get any loot or health points stabbing a tree right?” he questioned, placing a hand on his hip while his tail anxiously swished behind him.

The one responsible came to a halt, rough panting leaving their lips while dark, narrowed eyes slowly glanced over to Pike. The shaggy figure’s body hunched forward towards the tree before letting out a growl and giving a rough punch to the bark while eyeing Pike.

“Just marking the trees,” the man explained sarcastically.

“More like brutally tearing them apart,” Pike sighed before lifting the map back up to take another look to try and locate the last landmark piece that they were missing to lead them to the fallen legendary knight’s castle.

That was more than enough for the thief's companion, as he headed over to be almost hip to hip, arms crossing over his chest. He wouldn’t stop staring, and him being this close was driving Pike a little wild, as his eyes were constantly darting away from the map to take a glance at the other’s muscular chest and those luscious lips.

“So when will we be facing an actual monster?”

The question broke Pike out of his trance as he pursed his lip before shaking his head to snap out of it. “You’re very impatient, Thunderstorm Darkness. This quest is more than just beating up the baddies. It’s about adventure~” Pike explained while making a motion with his hand to show the vast landscape, which was the dense forest they’d been lost in for the past week.

Pike’s partner in crime, Thunderstorm Darkness, scoffed and finally pocketed his knife into its sheath dangling from his hip. “Adventure my ass, we’ve been here for about a week. I need some action at some point besides noisy goblins.” 

Handing over the map to the barbarian, Pike pouted. His tail tip flickering at a quick pace. “You know what I’m getting tired of? Your long ass name.” he huffed out in a snarky manner, sticking his nose up and turning away.

Staring at Pike, Thunderstorm rolled his eyes and took over in studying the map again. “Then call me Keith if it’s that annoying. You’re the one who said I needed a different name,” he stated bluntly, starting to move forward while looking around to try and pinpoint where they’d landed this time.

“But then it’s not fun, Keith!” Pike whined, trotting behind as he started lazily flipping a leather sack full of coins in his hand to occupy himself.

“Welcome to my world,” Keith muttered, before suddenly stopping when they came across a thicket of thorny vines forming a huge blockade.

“Appears we need to follow these vines towards an entrance?” 

Pike peaked over Keith’s shoulder while shuffling his coins back into his pocket, eyeing the marker on the map and then looking ahead at the wall of vines. “Then there is no time to lose, kitten.” he replied while snaking an arm around Keith’s exposed bicep. He tried to pull him along, but ended up being yanked back when the other didn’t seem to budge.

“What did I say about the nickname,” Keith grumbled, cheeks starting to heat up as he quickly moved to hide his face into the fur pelt over his shoulder cape. He refused to make eye contact with Pike, who was giving him his mischievous grin. 

“Oops~ must have forgotten,” Pike hummed, though Keith could probably pick up the underlining snickering, but he doesn’t know for certain as he gave another tug on the barbarian's arm. “We head left, right? A path towards the east from there. I think that’s the one we need to reach the ruins.”

Keeping hold of the map, Keith pouted and quietly let Pike pull him along as they stuck close to the endless hedge, hoping to come across the entrance they needed to move forward.

It was probably ten minutes of oddly comfortable silence between the two before Pike suddenly started getting an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Keith tensed next to him, as if sensing Pike’s wariness, and his eyes started to dart around while Pike’s ears turned in all directions.

A noticeable rustling started to pass by the hedge, but from the other side. Keith ripped one of his axes out of its holster from his back and pointed it towards the fauna. His free hand moved in front of Pike in a protective, but ready to attack stance. Pike himself had taken out a set of three kunai and held them between his fingers, ready to throw at any given chance.

“Show yourself!” Keith shouted out in a booming, dominant voice. But nothing answered back.

“I said show yourself or I will drive this axe through your head,” Keith demanded once more as rustling got closer to them. When they could see some of the vines start to separate, Keith stood back, pushing Pike with him. They watched closely as a tiny creature squeezed through before flopping onto its face once it managed to wiggle itself free from the hedge.

Its body was rough with scales, but had large ears like a bunny’s, with sharp pupiless eyes and no tail. And an oddly placed orange mustache.

Unimpressed, Keith stashed his axe back onto his back and pushed past Pike to head off, but Pike called after him. “Hey! Didn’t the tavern lady mention a guardian to the ruins? Why don’t we ask this little guy huh? You got any carrots? We can bribe this thing,” Pike explained with a cheesy grin. 

“Isn’t that just an animal? How would it tell us where the guardian is any way? And why do you think I’d have a carrot?” Keith eyed Pike with suspicion. 

Grinning, Pike held out his hand, making a “gimme” motion.

Pursing his lips, Keith sighed and opened one of his pouches strapped to his thigh, pulling out a couple small carrots. He handed it over reluctantly. “Fine! But it’s all I have left. You had to go eating most of your provisions because you couldn’t handle going through each night without a snack.”

Pike rolled his eyes playfully as he walked up to the creature and squatted down, setting the small portion before it. “Hey little guy, have you seen something that resembles a guardian?” 

The small, rabbit-type creature wiggled its mustache before hopping forward to pick up a carrot and start munching. It eyed the two before it straightened up on its hind legs. “Ah, matter of fact, you’ve met said guardian.”

The voice was deep, rather surprising to come out of something so tiny and close to what one would call cute.

“Coran?!” Keith shouted in surprise. The creature’s paw ran over its mustache as it finished off a carrot and grabbed another. 

“Please, call me the allpower guardian of the fallen knight’s castle. It has a better ring to it,” he chuckled before hopping back to etch something into the wall of thorny vines. 

The ground started to rumble under their feet before each vine began to separate and slip apart to expose a hidden pathway. “As thanks for feeding me, please enjoy the path you seek, but beware, you must tread quickly,” he warned before diving right into the wall of thorns.

Keith went up to the opened space in the hedge, peeking in and glancing around, skeptical at first. “Okay, all clear,” he called out, giving a thumbs up towards Pike before they moved along.

Pike whistled to himself, looking over the map he had swiped from Keith’s belt, clearly pleased as his fanged smile never left his lips, and turning the map in all directions while they strode down the empty path. A dark looming light just barely shining at the end of the path. 

“Will you stop snatching items off my body. There is a reason I have the map, remember?” Keith reminded Pike, but didn’t snatch it away. He moved closer, their shoulders barely bumping against each other every few steps. He pointed to a suspicious scribble that was coming up.

“What’s this? It looks like it’s going to block our path.” 

“Could be a warning?” Pike muttered as they halted when reaching the spot. The thief got the feeling that there was a risk of a trap before them.

“Or...a trap.” Pike sighed, bending down to start gently pressing around on the ground, examining what he had before him. 

“Is that an issue? You have a skill against those by being a thief, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but my luck sucks trying to disable traps. They activate every time,” Pike complained, standing back up as he crossed his arms over his chest as he tried to make the best judgement here.

“Well, obviously we can’t go around. The hedges don’t leave us with an open path. You have to try and deactivate it. You got us all the way here on your own… mostly. Treat it like any target, sharpshooter” Keith tried to encourage, patting his shoulder comfortably.

Rolling his shoulders, Pike sucked in a deep breath before reaching out to press a patch of dirt on the right just outside a very faint outlined circle that was etched into the ground, hesitantly waiting for something to happen but nothing seemed to be activating.

Ears perking up, Lance laughed and jumped up onto his feet and turned around towards Keith to say something but he didn’t get a chance to utter a sound before the ground suddenly glowed and quick blue lines shot around to form a symbol. The ground cracked and the two party members fell straight down.

“D-dammit!” Pike yelled as he tried digging his claws into the dirt with one hand, and the other took hold of the thick leather cross belt across Keith’s back which held the barbarian’s two axes. He tried to slow them down, but his efforts didn’t change the outcome, even with Keith trying to use an axe himself to dig it into the dirt. They continued sliding down the dirt tube before suddenly being shot out into the air and crashing down onto a stone floor. Keith landed on top of Pike, and his axe slipped from his hand during the fall, flying to land a few feet away in the ring light that came from the trap they just fell in--now their only lightsource. The axe fell onto the patch of dusty stones and smashed them into small pebbles. 

Groaning, Keith pushed himself up and grabbed Lance’s bicep, helping pull him up. “Shit..I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he questioned worriedly as he coughed a bit and waved his hand around to try and move away the dust lingering in the air.

Clutching his thigh a bit, Pike waved him off as he coughed lightly and caught his breath. “Nothing I can walk off, sorry I let you down. I thought I had it this time.” He sighed, ears folding back against his skull and tail falling limp between his legs.

Scoffing, Keith patted his lower back briefly as he moved past him to pick up his axe. “Hey, we’re alive aren’t we? Chin up. You still got the map?”

Looking around, Pike picked up a map that was torn in half, smiling nervously as he held up the two pieces to Keith. “Technically. I can still read it though.”

Heading to the only source of light, both tried to see if they could salvage any of the information. Unknown to the gathering dust around their feet that grew thicker around them until suddenly the light was blocked. 

“What the--” Keith quickly looked up from the map, a looming mish-mash of painful groans echoing against the stone walls as a wind picked up and the dust started to grow into a mangled form. Old bones that were scattered around rattled out of the dirt and combined with the dust.

Taking several steps back, Pike watched in horror while Keith had a smirk plastered across his lips. He unhooked his other axe off his back and twirled them in his hands, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Oh, hell yes! Finally!”

“What do you mean finally! That thing is horrific!” Pike shouted over the monster. 

Broken bones of all sizes were locked together, joined by a gooey black substance that oozed inside the makeshift body and poured out through any gaps within the ribs. A clear stone stood out directly in the middle of its chest where a heart would be. The head appeared to be a mash of multiple faces wiggling and trying to separate from each other while screaming and groaning.

Keith looked at Pike excitedly. “Exactly!” he laughed before leaping forward, heading in full force and ruthlessly attacking, trying to push the monster back.

“You’re fucking nuts!” Pike called back, though he was laughing as well, pulling out an assortment of kunai and swiftly going to Keith’s blind spot to provide protection and support.

“Pike, you see the stone don’t you? I’ll keep the body pushed back and leave it exposed, you shoot it out of this hell mess,” he ordered, Lance stuck staring at a slight outline of an exit amongst the dark before snapping out of it of the impact of Keith roughly slamming himself right into the monster's stomach to push it against the stone wall.

“Got it! Keep it back,” Pike replied as he waited for an opening before throwing three kunai in a row. The knives were caught mid air by the glooby substance which shot out from the monster's chest, however it left the actual stone exposed to them at the attempt in stopping Pike’s first attack.

Keith growled and slammed the sharp pommels of his axes directly through each of the monster's shoulders, keeping it attached to the wall. Despite the monster's thrashing body, Keith managed to keep it pinned. 

“One more time Pike! Now!” 

Taking a deep breath, Pike pulled out his remaining kunai. Narrowing his eyes, he rushed forward before throwing the kunai with a warrior's yell. The kunai sliced quickly through the air and pierced the stone, stabbing directly into the center with enough force that it shattered upon impact.

With the monster's final screams, the glooby substance started to form back into dust and disappear within the air. The bones dropped into a cluttered pile onto the stone ground, now lifeless.

Panting heavily, Keith slumped back after ripping his axe handles out of the wall. Pike rushed over to hold his arms out just in case Keith would lose his balance.

“You’re crazy,” Pike whispered through his own panting, laughing softly as Keith smiled and brought Pike into a hug. The two tried to calm down and catch their breath together.

Pikes ears and tail stood on end at the sudden hug. Once the shock faded, Pike swiftly wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist and the two swayed around in a small circle, relief and adrenaline keeping them moving a moment longer.

As they both settled, Keith cleared his throat and pulled away. He shyly rubbed his neck as he lifted one of his axe’s a little to point towards the open exit. “Um...we head this way.”

Pike looked over to the now obvious exit, chuckling with a small shake of his head. “Then let's go. If we fell forward, that means we are still on track to the castle ruins,” he pointed out.

It was a grueling few minutes of walking through pure darkness, but the two ended up walking into a dusty old dungeon. Keith and Pike put the torn map together to take another look the best they could. When realizing where they ended up, the two grinned at each other before making a massive run up the rotting wooden stairs and through the castle to the throne room. 

Pushing the heavy stone doors open, a grating noise filled the otherwise silent room that was in shambles. Walls were smashed down, exposing the sky. The surrounding forest had already begun slowly reclaiming the building, exposing how long it had been since anyone was here. One opening in the ceiling shone light on a rotten corpse that was resting hunched on its throne. A single, purple, five petal flower, very similar to a triodanis holzinger, grew out of the proclaimed knight's exposed skeleton chest.

“Pike! It’s here! The stardust flower. It makes the midnight star dagger right?” Keith questioned, but he no longer saw Pike with him. Instead, he was pulled out of the game by Lance tapping his shoulder.

Blinking, Keith looked away from the board game he had been immersed in, seeing Lance sitting thigh to thigh with him and holding out a rose.

“Lance?” Keith whispered, in shock as he stared at the rose presented to him.

Lance’s cheeks were a dark shade of red up to the tips of his ears, though he had the fondest expression while staring into Keith’s purple eyes.

“Keith, will you be my valentine? It’s not a stardust flower that can make a fancy dagger, but I hope it’ll be just as important?” he whispered.

Falling silent, Keith’s own cheeks began to fill with color. His bangs fell over his eyes as he didn’t answer right away, causing Lance to get nervous.

“Of course, you bumbling idiot, I’d love to,” Keith finally answered, taking the rose happily and leaning into Lance’s side as he admired his gift.

Lance gave a silent cheer, an arm wrapping around Keith’s waist to hold him comfortably against his side. Keith leaned over to rest against Lance’s chest, head nestled against his neck. Lance laid his own head on top of Keith’s as they enjoyed a silent, affectionate moment. The game forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter @ heptsachord


End file.
